Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat announced in the Assembly on Wednesday that the government has decided to make Gairsain the summer capital of the state, The Times of India reported on Thursday.

Dehradun is currently the capital of Uttarakhand and will presumably be retained as the winter capital. Jammu and Kashmir is the only other region to have two capitals – Jammu as the winter capital and Srinagar as the summer capital.

After making the announcement, Rawat, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, said modalities will have to be worked out on for how many months Gairsain will be the summer capital of Uttarakhand. “We [the Cabinet] will sit together, work out the plan and make our preparations in this regard,” the chief minister said. “The start has been made, and now we will proceed on this path.”

Asked how he planned to solve the infrastructure problems in the Gairsain region, Rawat admitted that water scarcity was the biggest problem in Bharairaisain – about 14 km from Gairsain. “I have spoken to engineers, and asked them to develop a lake near Bhararisain, which can also cater to the water requirements of the Gairsain area,” he said.

Rawat termed the decision as a tribute to the people who fought for the creation of Uttarakhand as a separate state. “For decades, people wanted Gairsain as the capital of the state, and we have fulfilled their request,” he said. Uttarakhand was carved out of the Himalayan districts of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, with Gairsain as the envisaged capital.

Later in the day, Rawat celebrated the announcement of Garsain as the summer capital of Uttarakhand.